Linz2050
Based on innovative projects in the areas “smart metering”, e-mobility, energy efficiency in buildings and ICT and with the help of relevant city stakeholders, a holistic vision of the energy systems in the year 2050 was developed in the context of this project. It served as the basis for the creation, in cooperation with experts, of a roadmap for 2020 and a concrete action plan for years 2012-2015 .
Initial Situation
With a population of 190,000 inhabitants, the provincial capital Linz is the economic and political hub of the federal state of Upper Austria. Since the early 1980’s the manufacturing town has been taking vigorous steps towards the improvement of its ecological environment. A wide variety of innovative activities indicate that intensive work and/or research on intelligent and sustainable energy systems is well under way in Linz. Among other things, the introduction of “smart metering” systems was introduced as early as 2008, while projects such as “eSECH” are already working on reducing energy consumption in private housing construction and the “Clean Motion Campaign” demonstrates that e-mobility is being intensively addressed. These approaches were combined in an integrated overall concept, recognized in the larger systems context thus paving the way for a “SmartCity” Linz. A participative stakeholder process structured in three phases (=forums) served as the basis for this approach.
Vision Developed
For example, a short excerpt from the community vision for Linz 2050 is worded: “From above it’s immediately apparent that the transport and supply routes in Linz have changed dramatically. The routes are no longer channeled from north to south through the center as in earlier days, but rather directed in a ring-shaped traffic pattern around the city.” The qualitative vision was expanded by quantitative objectives for Linz, whose achievement is to be sought by 2030 and 2050. Appropriate percentage targets were set for the mutually defined indicators “reduction of the per capita CO2 (carbon) emissions,” “sufficient captive generation derived from renewable energy to completely cover the power and/or space heating requirements” as well as “enhancement of energy efficiency.”
Action Plan Developed
As an additional step in substantiating the “Roadmap 2020+” that had been developed, a third forum held in February 2012 saw the establishment of measures that had been formulated in an action plan for 2012 to 2015. Thus the content focused on formulating concrete action proposals that had already been implemented. The stakeholders addressed questions such as “Which action steps for the guiding themes will we have implemented successfully by 2015?” “What have we thereby achieved?” and “What is different as compared to now?” Beyond that, they gave specific thought to “Who has contributed what – and when – to the successful implementation?” and what hurdles had to be taken for that.
Projects and measures to be taken were prioritized; “must” action steps, added value and unique selling propositions were worked out. Within the guiding theme for “Parameters,” the creation of a “Smart City Coordination Office” in 2013 and in the guiding theme for energy efficiency, for example, raising awareness through visualization of energy consumption via “energy displays” were set out to substantiate the action plan.
Outlook
An “Action Plan” that would serve as the basis for formulation and design of demonstration projects was the key outcome of the last forum. The results of the entire stakeholder process were presented to the political decision-makes as the foundation for the further orientation of the city of Linz on the topic of “smart city”.
At the same time, in the context of the city development project “Green Center Linz” a first large demonstration project with three focal points, “smart citizens, smart buildings and smart mobility” were put into the preparatory stage, which was embedded in the master plan for the inner city urban development area Trend Zone Central Linz.